Marvel Cinematic Universe

My thinking is more akin to Molars.

Firstly, some of the better films have been from relatively unknown characters. Shang Chi is the best MCU film this side of Infinity War (including End Game).

Before the films were released, the biggest name on the MCU roster, certainly from a wider public lens, was The Incredible Hulk, and the film was incredibly mediocre. Even Iron Man and Thor weren't anywhere near as well known as they are now.

I'm quite happy that they're not rushing to pump out the sure fire "hits" of Fantastic Four and X-Men. Not the least because I still think the X-Men work better in their own universe.

That said the franchise on a whole is lacking a central linchpin, now that Downey Jr, And Evans, and Boseman are out of the picture. The only actor / character who approaches that level of charisma is Hemsworth's Thor.

I like quite a few of the other characters and how they're portrayed but I can't help but think of them as supporting roles, rather than central stars.

actually, I think I'd like to see the Fantastic Four a bit. Not because I care to much about that set of heroes, but I'd love to see a good portrayal of Doctor Doom. Done well he could be a much needed, memorable antagonist. If they ever get round to Doom and fuck the portrayal up I'd be done with the MCU.

I think infinity war needed to give some hint of something else coming. It does feel like it’ll be 5-10 years off these coming out before they’ve built up to that same level again.

Not watched Loki yet, but nothing in Wandavision or Falcon & Solider was anywhere close to being as good as Daredevil S1, Jessica Jones S1 or Agent Carter S1.
It's a shame the Netflix Marvel shows kinda lost their way after Defenders & Iron Fist killed their momentum. A few of the later seasons were improvements, but it was a bit too late by then.

Even Daredevil season 1 had a lot of padding in the middle. If they’d trimmed it down to 6 episodes it would have been fantastic.

I’m not saying any of the shows they’ve put out so far have unmissable but for their first shows they’ve been a lot better than they could have been. They’re probably all solid 6 or 7 out of 10 shows.

Well it was Fox but still counts as a Marvel product just through the IP.

I was thinking of going to see Shang Chi now that the movies are open again, but it looks like it’ll be on Disney plus in about 5 days anyway so might see Eternals instead. I was expecting that Bond movie to be out.

This. Though I've been meaning to watch Legion. I keep forgetting about it.



yeah, I'm having the same thing with Dune. I wanted to watch it in Imax the past 2 weeks, but was too busy. Now I'm checking the schedule and it's been relegated to one crappy timeslot that's going to be a pain to try and fit in.

I'd still recommend Imax for Dune. It really suits the big screen.

The first season of The Punisher is absolutely excellent and Bernthal is certainly the best Frank Castle there's been.

Of course, you have to like the character, which has veered very close to reactionary mah gunz MAGAness at times, but they manage that pretty well in the first series.

The second series was lazy and mostly dull, apart from a couple of bright spots, and they wasted Jigsaw.

Of the Netflix Marvel TV shows, I enjoyed Jessica Jones the most. The first series was gripping. Tennant made a great villain. Daredevil was okay, but it was the supporting cast that I loved the most about it. Foggy and Karen were really well rounded characters. Luke Cage was okay, but it felt like they had little idea what to do with the story. Iron Fist was bad, just awfully bad. Defenders was not much better. Punisher had moments of brilliance.

If they were to ever introduce any of the stories and characters into the MCU, I would like to see Jessica and Punisher carry on in some form.

Watched Eternals yesterday. I really enjoyed it. But it was better when it was more character oriented than Super Hero shenanigans. It opens up some interesting possibilities about where future story lines could go.

Saw The Eternals yesterday. It wasn't that bad and enjoyable enough for most of its runtime. With a series that has included Thor: The Dark World and Iron Man 2, I don't think this is the one that is deserving of all these think pieces as saying it is the end of the MCU.

The first 20-30 minutes are probably the weakest. The antagonists are just CGI roaring things that are exceptionally dull. When the early stakes are just that these have returned, then it didn't bode well for the rest of the film. Things settle into a better groove though whilst they are getting the band back together and a new foe emerges that is more interesting. No idea about the source material, but I think the Deviants could have been safely dropped and the film would have been much better.

There are a huge number of characters to introduce us too here (I believe there were 9 Eternals). It's kind of amazing that the whole film doesn't collapse under the weight of this, but it just about manages to keep it together. I think it would have been better to structure it as a family drama that takes place over 1000s of years, telling that story mostly linearly. Instead, the flashbacks as presented here feel more as a distraction from the present day events, simply informing what is happening now, when really they should be the more interesting character stories.

What we do get does about as good as a job as it can with establishing who these characters are.

As for general comments on post Endgame output, I've enjoyed most of it. I loved WandaVision and really liked Loki. Thought Falcon & Winter Soldier was a bit dull, but had its moments. Not watched What If? except the first episode which was fine. Far From Home was enjoyable and I quite liked Black Widow (although, it was bit of an insult to BW that she finally gets a film and it is really an origin story for someone else). Shang-Chi was really great. I don't think MCU have anything to worry about with the quality of the output at the moment, although it does feel like a long time since something big has happened.

John Bernthal was the perfect casting for that Punisher

Came to post something similar, it's not the best film ever but it isn't as bad as I was expecting from reaction.

Angelina Jolie's character - like a couple of others - was a bit 2D but we'll see if the next film allows it to develop. Hopefully they'll explore more planets and space and not just earth